JC History: Primary Sources

 This page contains links to a selection of primary sources relevant to the Junior Cycle History course. As with my other notes, I have followed the order of the Artefact textbook.


Chapter 4: Culture and Society in Early Christian Ireland

The Confessions of St. Patrick 


Chapter 5: Ancient Rome

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius 

The Twelve Tables of Roman Law

Pliny the Younger’s letters on Pompeii


Chapter 6: Life and Death in Medieval Times

Magna Carta

Domesday Book

The Decameron


Chapter 7: Medieval Ireland

Annals of the Four Masters

The Táin


Chapter 8: The Renaissance

The King James Bible

The Prince by Machiavelli

Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks


Chapter 9: The Age of Exploration and Conquest

Columbus’ Letter to the Sovereigns

Letters of Hernan Cortes to Charles V


Chapter 10: The Reformation

The 95 Thesis

Thomas Moore’s Utopia

Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy, 1534


Chapter 11: The Plantations

Articles of the Plantation of Ulster


Chapter 12: The American Revolution

The Declaration of Independence

Common Sense by Thomas Paine


Chapter 13: The French Revolution

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen


Chapter 14: The 1798 Rebellion

The letters of Wolfe Tone


Chapter 15: Daniel O'Connell

Catholic Emancipation Act, 1829


Chapter 16: The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora

The Irish Crisis by Charles Trevelyan


Chapter 17: Ireland 1884 - 1914: Politics, Culture and Sport

Letter from Archbishop Croke to Michael Cusack


Chapter 18: Ireland 1916-1923: The Struggle for Independence

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921


Chapter 19: Ireland during World War II: The Emergency

Transfer of the Treaty Ports

The Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1938


Chapter 20: An Important Decade: Ireland in the 1960

O’Neill/Lemass meetings, 1965


Chapter 21: The Troubles in Northern Ireland

The Widgery Report into Bloody Sunday, 1972


Chapter 22: Women in 20th Century Ireland

Bunreacht na hÉireann


Chapter 23: World War I and its Consequences

The Treaty of Versailles


Chapter 24: Life in Communist Russia

The Communist Manifesto

Lenin's April Theses, 1924


Chapter 25: Life in Fascist Germany

Mein Kampf

The Nuremberg Laws


Chapter 26: The Causes of World War II

Nazi Soviet Non-Aggression Pact 


Chapter 27: World War II: A Detailed Overview

Soldier's diaries from World War II


Chapter 28: Genocide: Understanding and Key Examples

Transcript of the Nuremberg Trials